5 ways milk doesn’t do a body good

Got milk? Not so fast. The All-American beverage of choice is high in calories, saturated fat, and unnatural chemicals that can cause a range of health problems

Milk was once christened “nature’s perfect food,” says Mark Bittman at The New York Times. The Department of Agriculture recommends three 8-ounce glasses of the stuff a day (which equals about 1.5 pounds). After all: It builds strong bones, is packed with nutrients, and helps kids grow taller. But drinking dairy can be problematic, and its most notorious ingredient, lactose, is indigestible by a significant percentage of Americans. Here, five reasons milk actually doesn’t do a body good:

1. It’s high in calories and saturated fat Ounce for ounce, milk has about “the same calorie load as soda,” Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, tells The New York Times. Lactose is still a sugar, and contributes about 55 percent of skim milk’s calories. Plus, milk and other dairy products are big sources of saturated fat, “and there are very credible links between dairy consumption and both Type 1 diabetes and the most dangerous form of prostate cancer.” One serving of 2 percent milk has even been found to have the same saturated fat count as a serving of french fries.

2. A lot of people can’t drink it In the United States, as many as 50 million people are lactose intolerant: Roughly 90 percent of Asian-Americans can’t drink milk, and 75 percent of all African-Americans, Mexican-Americans, and Jewish-Americans are similarly lactose intolerant. Recent studies suggest soy milk might not be much better…